Seton Hall freshman center Kevin Johnson, seen here against Maine, got his first start of his career Thursday night in the win over Longwood.Tim Farrell/The Star-Ledger

The suppressed smile came with 12 minutes and eight seconds remaining.
Kevin Willard, his Seton Hall team in the throes of a 79-61 blowout win over Longwood Wednesday night, just watched freshman center Kevin Johnson pull off a triple-dip.

First, Johnson saved a ball from going out of bounds on the baseline, tipping it to himself before gaining footing. Then, he had a no-look, over-his-back pass to Brian Oliver. And finally, Oliver dished it back inside where Johnson took a dribble and laid it in for the basket.

While the mainly subdued crowd unleashed its biggest cheer of the night, the Pirates head coach couldn’t help but let a small smirk show as Johnson sprinted back to the other end of the court.

“I thought he did some good things,” Willard said of Johnson after. “He’s got to do some things better defensively, but yeah — 11 and 8 in 24 minutes is great.”

So Wednesday night, seeking to give regular starter Eugene Teague’s oft-ailing ankle as much of a night off as possible, Johnson was thrust into the starting lineup.

With the Lancers’ (3-9) lack of quality big men, it was the perfect opportunity to see just what Johnson was made of when he played significant minutes.

He finished the night with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Sure, they had all gotten minutes here and there throughout the first 10 games of the season, but unless they were given significant court time — in essence, starter’s minutes — they would still remain an unknown.

The biggest of which was Johnson, the 6-foot-9, 240-pound center. While he was on campus last season, he was ruled academically ineligible and not able to practice with the team.

“I got to do a lot more stuff, get up and down the court a little more,” Johnson said. “I was ready. I was ready from warming up. I knew I was going to have a good game today.”

Teague would come in during the first stoppage of play, but for the most part, this night belonged to Johnson and the rest of the reserves. Haralds Karlis got a run.

So did Freddie Wilson. Even the struggling Oliver was given most of the night to try and find the shooting touch that has eluded him for much of this season, scoring 13 points on 14 shots.

“Just seeing that ball go in and seeing everything come together,” said Oliver. “As a shooter, once you see that one go in, it’s so much easier to keep shooting — even if you miss the next one, you feel the next one is going in.”

And while Fuquan Edwin barely broke a sweat leading the Pirates (9-2) in scoring with 19 points, the second unit was given the night to try and gel.

“It’s a ‘W’,” Willard said. “I’m glad we did what we had to do and we came out with maturity. That second group didn’t really play very well, but there were three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior on the court for 11 straight minutes pretty much.”

But with a shortage of reserves in the low-post, giving Johnson the night to try and find his niche was perhaps the most important part of the game.

Because of the season-ending foot injury to junior forward Patrik Auda and the inability of junior center Aaron Geramipoor to stay healthy, Willard has had to look elsewhere for reserves in the front-court. Enter Johnson, who fit the bill — literally.

He found out he would receive his first collegiate start when he arrived in the locker room Wednesday night and said that it was a much different feeling. But both Johnson and Willard would like to get to a point where no one is surprised by his production.